The Immortal Skink vs Flying
Giant Alpine Skink is a tank monster from the Water element that can both deal damage while keep your team alive. It is built to stand in the 1st position and take hits for the team. This monster is does its job well with a balanced stats and abilities. Sometimes that is all you really need in battle.
Without a strong tank for the team, the lineup can fall apart fast. Giant Alpine Skink helps solve that problem. It gives Water teams a solid foundation that can survive damage from any attacks whether it's melee, range or magic damage.
Stats
Giant Alpine Skink's stats support his role as a tank well. It has good health, armor and abilities for a frontline monster. The damage is also high enough to carry although the health is not enough for a long battle against magic damage monsters. Even so, what matters more is how long it can stay alive and keep the formation stable. I specifically chosen him in this battle because Shield can reduce Earthquake damage and in this modifier, since I don't have Flying monsters, I need something that can be reliable if other monsters can't deal with the damage.
Image from Splinterlands
The Shield ability helps it survive longer in fights against melee and range damage. Reducing incoming damage makes every point of health more valuable. This is very important against melee and ranged heavy teams. Since Earthquake damage is also considered as a melee damage, it can reduce the damage by half making it a good option if you don't have good monsters with Flying abilities.
Image from Splinterlands
Phase ability gives Giant Alpine Skink better chance against magic damage. Normally, tanks struggle when armor is ignored. Even the Shield ability does nothing against magic damage. With this ability, it has a chance to avoid some of the magic damage preserving its health.
Image from Splinterlands
Stun is an ability that adds a small chance of giving the stunned status to opponents during battle. Stunned opponents skip their turn. That means they cannot attack and also activates their abilities during that round. This includes abilities like Heal, Cleanse and other similar abilities.
Battle
This is a good example of a battle where better lineup triumphs over anything else. If you look at it, my team is on a huge disadvantage here. Not only the opponent has a lot of range attacks that complements with the archon, they also have an Elf Bloodline with Range Bloodline Tribute which means if Decrepit Windseer dies, all Elf Bloodline monsters gets increased range damage. On top of that, they also have an archon that gives Flying ability to all monsters which completely negates the Earthquake damage while my whole team gets damage each round. Despite all of these, I still won the battle with an overwhelming advantage thanks to Resurgence, Endless Ape and Giant Alpine Skink.
Giant Alpine Skink is a true tank monster. It is meant to sit in the 1st position and absorb attacks while the backline does the damage. It is not there to carry the fight with its damage, although he can do it as well. Its main role is still to protect the team and create time until the rest of your team can deal enough damage to the opponent..
Overall, Giant Alpine Skink is a reliable Mundane Beast tank. Its stats are good but what makes it better is its ability to compete against Flying opponents in Earthquake modifier. When combined more with Endless Ape and Elowen Sylphie's Resurgence, Charge and Trample abilities, they can be a formidable core for any lineup.
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